


Revelation

by TigerLily



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-30
Updated: 2012-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-30 09:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/330254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerLily/pseuds/TigerLily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jenny explains her irrational behavior. This set near the end of season 5.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Revelation

**Author's Note:**

> Written for wwanda who won my auction over at LJ's Help Japan.

Jenny Sheppard sat at the desk in her den thumbing through an old photo album while sipping on a tumbler of good bourbon. It was an album her mother had put together prior to the divorce that destroyed what Jenny had assumed was a happy family.

As she turned the yellow tinged pages, she saw herself grow from a tiny baby to a beautiful, fun-loving, young woman.

She stared at the last picture in the album and wondered where that young woman had disappeared to.

A soft thud at her front door had her slamming the album closed and reaching for the gun she had stashed in her top desk drawer. She thumbed the safety off and quickly made her way to the front door.

Another thud caused her to jump, but she pushed the fear aside and called out, “Who’s there?”

“Jethro.”

Jenny sighed. “What do you want, Jethro?”

“Just put the gun down and let me in.”

“Let yourself in,” Jenny countered wondering why her sometimes lover hadn’t used his key as she lifted her blouse and slipped the gun into the waist band of her slacks.

“I can’t,” Jethro grunted. “My hands are full.”

Jenny let her blouse fall covering her gun before she unlocked and opened the front door. “Why are you here, Jethro?”

“I brought dinner.”

“What makes you think I haven’t already eaten?” Jenny inquired as her eyes were drawn to the two brown bags that Jethro was holding.

“You cancelled your standing reservation at the Capital Grille,” Jethro pointed out.

“And from that you inferred that I needed to be fed?”

“I’m trying to be nice here, Jenny.”

Jenny sighed again. She stepped back and let Jethro enter the house. She closed and locked the door before following Jethro down the hallway to her kitchen with a side trip to her study to put up her gun.

Jethro had set the two brown bags on the counter and they admitted aromas that had Jenny’s mouth watering and her stomach growling.

“Hungry?” Jethro inquired with a bit off chuckle.

“Starving,” Jenny answered having learned many years before that it was no use trying to bluff Jethro. He saw through the most complicated lie, and Jenny wasn’t in the frame of mind to weave a flimsy excuse let alone a complicated lie. “So what did you bring?”

“Steak, baked potatoes, a salad and a nice bottle of red wine,” Jethro replied as he began to unload the bags while Jenny set the breakfast bar with dishes and silverware she had pulled from the dishwasher. “And a couple of pieces of red velvet cake.”

“You’ve gone all out,” Jenny lightly quipped as she handed Jethro a corkscrew for the wine. “So, what do I owe you for such an elaborated feast?”

“Satisfy my curiosity.”

“Concerning?”

“Why you’ve been acting odd of late.” Jethro opened the bottle and poured them each a glass.

“Odd?” Jenny asked after taking a sip of her wine.

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t think that I do, Jethro,” Jenny countered as she settled into the chair that Jethro had pulled out for her.

Jethro settled into the chair across from Jenny and rewarded her evasion with a raised eyebrow. He wasn’t going to comment on her obsession for the arms dealer, La Grenouille. That was old news.

“I was wondering how long it was going to take you to ask me what was going on.”

“I didn’t think I had to.”

“Oh?”

“I knew if I waited long enough you would tell me,” Jethro countered as he leaned forward. He rested his elbows on the table and his chin in his clasped hands.

“I’m immune to “the Gibbs’ stare,” Jenny said emulating Jethro.

“According to DiNozzo, nobody is immune.”

“Since he hasn’t shared a bed with you, I highly doubt he is qualified to make that statement,” Jenny countered not missing a beat.

“That aside,” Jethro calmly remarked as he leaned back in his seat. “Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you or do I have to pry it out of you?”

“That depends on how creative you want to be.”

“Jenny,” Jethro growled suddenly tired of Jenny’s evasiveness.

“Jethro,” Jenny countered.

“Tell me.”

“After we eat,” Jenny agreed. “Because, I’m not the only one who is starving and it would be a shame to let all this good food go to waste.”

“Alright,” Jethro conceded. “But, you’re telling me.”

Jenny nodded. She took a bite of her steak and moaned as it melted in her mouth.

Jethro smiled, and then started in on his own plate.

&/&/&

Jenny settled on the couch tucking her feet under her while she waited for Jethro to join her.

Jethro brought out a tray that held two pieces of red velvet cake and a single coffee cup. He set it on the coffee table before retrieving the cup of coffee and settling onto the couch next to Jenny.

Jenny resisted the urge to snuggle up to Jethro knowing that the time to be truthful was upon her.

Jethro sensing her need to be comforted caught hold of one of her hands and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Take your time and just tell me,” he softly said.

Gathering her courage, Jenny quietly revealed the news that Ducky had given her weeks before, “I’m dying.”

“What?” Jethro inquired incredulous. Of all the things he expected to hear from Jenny, this was the last thing.

“I’m dying,” Jenny repeated.  


“Of?”

“As you know, I’ve been having some severe headaches of late, so I asked Ducky to quietly run some tests to see what was causing them,” Jenny explained. “He discovered that I have an inoperable brain tumor.”

“Can’t you get treatment for it?” Jethro asked grasping at straws since he was truly at a loss as to what to say. He couldn’t imagine the vibrant person in front of him dying from such a deadly illness.

“I could, but it would only give me a couple more months, and I’d rather spend what time I do have left living life to the fullest instead of being sick and miserable.”

“I guess I can’t get you to change your mind?”

“What do you think?”

“Not a snowball’s chance in hell of that.”

“You’d be right.”

Jethro sighed. He gently tugged on Jenny’s hand. “C’mere.”

Jenny went willingly into Jethro’s arms accepting the comfort that he was offering.

&/&/&

Jethro walked away from the burning brownstone along side Mike Franks silently mourning for Jenny. She had gone out fighting, which had been her plan all along.

“You know this is how it had to end,” Franks said pitching his voice over the sound of the approaching emergency vehicles.

“I know,” Jethro replied as he slipped into his lapel pocket the only evidence he would have of the fun, carefree woman he had met in Paris all those years ago.

fin


End file.
